Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.
This assignment was made in the evening, California time, on Thursday, June 6, 2013, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, June 10, as the deadline.
Below are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).
Disquiet Junto Project 0075: 18-Second Vine Suite
This project is about the experimental use of a casual mobile app to compose, perform, and record music. This marks the 75th weekly Disquiet Junto project, and it is the second Junto project to focus on a mobile app. Last time the app was NodeBeat, for the 20th weekly project. This time it is Vine (available for free via the URL vine.co), which is available for many if not all Android and iOS devices. The hope is that if you do not have such a device you might borrow one from someone.
Vine allows users to create and share six-second loops of audio-video. The extent to which that audio and video can be manipulated is largely determined by the stop-motion-like start-and-stop system Vine employs; it allows you to pause the recording, adjust the camera, and then continue the recording process.
For this project, you will create three six-second Vine videos, for a total of 18 seconds, resulting in a Vine suite. Each movement will be based on a specified sound source and a specified approach to the stop-and-start edits.
Step 1: The audio-video source for the first movement is water running steadily from a faucet. Record the sound and image of the water and tap your device’s screen at a relatively slow, even pace, roughly 70 BPM. Feel free to have other sounds playing off camera, or to have items in the sink that might make noise as a result of the flow of water. Do this for the full six seconds. When you are done, you will have completed the first of your three Vine videos. Tag it as #vinejunto and #disquietjunto, along with any other tags you’d like, before posting.
Step 2: The second movement will be much more quickly paced. There are two audio-video sources, which you will alternate between, at roughly twice the pace of the video from Step 1. Start with an image of something that rotates and makes sound — a bicycle wheel may be your best bet — and alternate with an image of something static, like a picture of a face in a comic strip, while you make a low droning noise with your voice. Feel free to “prepare” the rotating object, as you see fit, in a manner that might influence the sound it makes. Do this back and forth until you have completed the six seconds. Tag it as #vinejunto and #disquietjunto, along with any other tags you’d like, before posting.
Step 3: The audio-video source for the third movement is whatever is going on outside a window. Divide the track up into six even sections. The first section should be a wide view out your window. The five subsequent sections should try to focus the center of the camera on one object. The sound is whatever happens to be going on outside your window, though you should avoid recording conversation. There should be no additional sounds beyond what is happening out the window. Tag it as #vinejunto and #disquietjunto, along with any other tags you’d like, before posting.
Step 4: Record the audio from the three videos and create one single 18-second track. Upload this to your SoundCloud.com account.
Deadline: Monday, June 10, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your track should have a duration of 18 seconds.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: Include the term “disquiet0075-vinesuite”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
More on this 75th Disquiet Junto project, in which a three-part audio-video suite is created in the app Vine, at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0075: 18-Second Vine SuiteMore on the Vine app at:
http://vine.co/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/